Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Marketplace reports that the FDA has blocked sales from one of India’s largest drug producers, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals. “It prevented sales of Ranbaxy’s generic versions of the antibiotic Cipro and the cholesterol pill Zocor.” This begs the question: should the FDA put office in foreign countries? On the one hand, it is important to ensure that imported…
Most people know that under the central limit theory claims, the distribution of the mean of a distribution will be normally distributed as the number of observations gets large. The question is, if we have a series of discrete events that we want to approximate the distribution of the mean with a continuous distribution, should we estimate…
The World Health Organization increased the epidemiological alarm level from 3 to 4 (out of 6). Closing public spaces may be a good idea to stop the spread of the flu: Public Health Interventions during the 1918 influenza pandemic – Healthcare Economist How (and How Not) to Battle Flu: A Tale of 23 Cities –…
How do you create a Markov Model for the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals? Below is an example from Briggs, Claxton and Sculpher’s book titled “Decision Modelling for Health Economic Evaluation.” Example The main characteristic of a Markov Model is that it defines different states and then defines transition probabilties between each state. Let us examine the case…
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Swine Flu to be an international public health emergency. MÉXICO La Jornada claims that there swine flu has killed 81 people in México and infected 1324. The entire country of México has closed schools until May 6th according to La Prensa: “El gobierno federal ordenó la suspensión de misas, clases–hasta el 6…
The Guardian reports that the UK considering privatizing sections of the National Health Service (NHS): A Treasury-commissioned report yesterday recommended measures to chop £6bn from public services budgets over the next two years, with further measures intended to save £15bn a year by 2013. It calls for a shake-up of “back office” administrative and support…
In Mexico, there has been an outbreak of swine flu which has lead to 20 recorded deaths and likely 40 more. The newspaper el Universal reports that, the Secretaría de Educación Pública suspended classes in the Distrito Federal and the Estado de México. This means that in the Mexican capital, 5,201 public schools and 3,965 private schools…
What caused the housing boom? Did people really believe that a median home price of over $500,000 in San Diego were realistic? Were people caught up in the dot-com boom really rational? Economics 2.0, reviews a paper saying that rational people will often buy assets that they themselves believe are overvalued. Why? Let’s say I believe that…
Bank of America shareholders approved the purchase of Merrill Lynch on December 5, 2008. Last year in the fourth quarter, Merrill Lynch lost $15.84 billion. Bank of America President Ken Lewis knew that Merrill was at risk of huge 4th quarter losses. Ken Lewis did not tell shareholders about Merrill’s impending large losses. Why? Under oath,…
Highlights from The Economist’s article on Health Care in India: India spends only about 5% of GDP in medical care. Of this spending only one fifth is public spending. With an overwhelmed public sector, relatively low levels of insurance, a premium is put on frugal innovation. Fortis, a hospital chain in New Delhi, elects to…